That said: I work in the auto industry and if I showed up in a pair of Tods driving mocs with the nubs on the sole I would get laughed at so hard my head would spin. My manliness would also get called into question and then people would point.

When I go to conventions I wear them with with slacks and sweater and tie, where as my Varvartos Chucks hurt and still look too casual for usage. I've tried, ended up with swollen ankles.

They may be too Euro for some people here, but my feet say thank you after a long day and I like them much more than any AE sneaker shoes.

This is an online forum, no comments are "necessary." If you wish to wear your homo-fetish elongated sneakers out to the club, that is your business. But if you are wearing them to the office, you are being offensive. The shoes you posted are ugly and unprofessional. If had an employee come in wearing a suit with those kind of shoes, it would stick in my mind, especially when promotion/review time came around. Say what you want about judging performance based on appearance, but it happens. If you are a professional, dress like one. I have worn leather-soled shoes on every single workday and have never had comfort issues.

I don't think the first dark brown one (suede?) is ugly. Probably not with a traditional suit, but it could be interesting with checked wool trousers, cotton twill pants, jeans, or several other options. The second brown ones do seem a bit questionable.

London - The sartorial secrets of a "rainmaker" in London's financial markets are subtle, expensive and still mostly a male preserve.

"Rainmakers" are the most successful corporate financiers in the City - London's financial centre - the ones who persuade big companies into the kind of mega-mergers which bring a deluge of cash for bankers, brokers, investors and traders.

Like most things to do with the ultra-discreet "City" no one will go on record to tell you exactly which shoes, shirts and suits will mark you out as the money world's ultimate insider.

'There is a slight snobbery that white shirts are more for juniors'
But those who follow the dress code for the City of London's top circles suggest that these bankers care deeply about what they wear when trying to impress clients or rivals.

"They are like peacocks really," said one woman investment banker, who works in the City, one of the world's biggest financial hubs. "I think they care more than women."

Details that would go unnoticed by the uninitiated are crucial for sending the right signals to clients or competitors.

A top City corporate financier, for example, will keep a special bespoke suit just for important board meetings.

He will model himself on the old-style British merchant banker, whose pedigree would include Eton - Britain's most exclusive private school - Oxford or Cambridge universities or a senior regiment of the British Army.

To convey this he will wear a handmade grey or dark blue single breasted suit, classically-cut shirt with double-cuffs and non-flashy cufflinks, a Hermes tie and black lace-up shoes.

"Shoes are absolutely black, that is very much City of London," said Christopher Modoo, tailoring buyer for Ede & Ravenscroft, London's oldest tailoring firm that made coronation robes for Queen Elizabeth II and where a bespoke suit starts at Â£2 200 (about R30 000). "Certainly not brown shoes or you'd get fired," joked another investment banker, who recalled a colleague once being sent home for wearing brown shoes.

And definitely not loafers.

"They are slightly capital markets, eurobonds, I would say," said one investment banker.

If it's raining, which it often is in London, the corporate financier is likely to carry an umbrella made by Swayne Adeney Brigg, Royal umbrella-makers, which sell for about Â£160. But never a golf umbrella.

A bespoke suit, for example, will not have a belt, while a serious merchant banker would not be seen dead in a shirt with a breast pocket.

For breast pocket read "casual shirt," several bankers said.

There are also issues with white shirts.

"There is a slight snobbery that white shirts are more for juniors," said Modoo. "It says: 'He's just left college and he wants to dress safely so he wears a white shirt.'"

Coloured shirts are the fashion in finance.

"They are really into pink. It makes them all look perkier and less sort of grey and hungover," said the woman banker, hinting at the heavy socialising after office hours.

And while bespoke suits may be sober on the outside, bright red or turquoise satin linings often provide the flash of plumage which hints at flamboyance.

Ede & Ravenscroft do coloured linings for City suits, but the fashion now is for slightly more subtle, iridescent silks.

"We do coloured linings but we go for more discreet colours...we have moved away from the screaming bright reds," said Modoo, who said this was a reaction by customers after some mainstream fashion brands "hijacked" coloured linings.

Corporate financiers would never want to be mistaken for the traders, who tend to dress more brashly.

Traders are known for being bold on pinstripe suits, garish cufflinks, luxury watches such as Breguet, that can sell for as much as Â£60 000 pounds, Gucci belts and pointy shoes.

Top investment bankers also want to distinguish themselves from hedge fund managers and private equity executives.

"An investment banker looks ultra-chic - like a smart gentlemen - while the private equity guys wear the wrong shade of grey suit don't they," the woman banker said, adding that to the top-drawer corporate financier this suggests an arriviste.

Although male bankers have hard and fast rules to guide them, some complained that the fashion strictures for women appear to be a choice between two unhappy stereotypes.

"People always criticise them if they wear boring suits because they look too masculine - then they say they are being flirty if they wear very showy, feminine clothes," one man in corporate finance said.